The First Outdoor Municipal Pool

Philadelphia opened the first outdoor municipal pool in the United States. Four days after it opened, swimmers waited in line outside the bath rioted when the superintendent told them that they would not be admitted that evening. City officials intended for the pool to function essentially as a large public bathtub for working class residents who lacked bathing facilities in their home. But quickly local boys and young men flocked to the pool in order to rough house and play in the water just as they had done for generations in the rivers around Philadelphia.